133:Welcome Home

November 13

“It’s good to be home.  I’ve missed my brownstone,” Charlie sighed as they pulled onto Willow Street.

“You love it, don’t you?”

Turning away from the familiar scenery on her street, she gave Jon a wistful smile.  “I do.  The richness of the history and connection to old New York appeals to me.”

She’d seen his residences and knew that, two times out of three, he preferred something different.  The French design of the New Jersey house spoke of wealth and elegance on a level with kings and queens while the Tribeca place was all clean lines and modern simplicity.  Both were fine, but they didn’t have the warmth that she wanted in her home.  Not like the Hamptons house did, and that one gave her hope.

Somewhere down the line their difference in taste may present a problem, but for the time being, Jon didn’t seem to care which house they were in as long as he had his laptop and guitar.  He was without both tonight since they were coming directly from the airport, but Charlie had wine to compensate for the absence. 

“I’m going to offer one more time,” she felt compelled to say as the taxi eased up in front of her place.  “This isn’t necessary.”

“Unless you have a moral objection to us sharing a bed while your kids are home, stop talking.” 

He was reaching impatience-level with the emotional and/or independence Charlie kept trying to assign to this, even though he’d told her yesterday that this decision had “not a goddamn thing” to do with emotions.  This was life and they were currently sharing theirs – all of it.  He’d followed up with a repeat of his good, bad and ugly statement and a dare to bring it up again.

Yet here she was, bringing it up, mostly out of insecurity over what the night held.  If it went as badly as the last life-changing talk she’d had with her sons, Charlie didn’t relish Jon watching her flounder through it. 

“And if I do have moral objections?”

“I’m still staying until all the talking is done and I’m sure everybody’s okay.  Then I’ll go to my place.  And you’d better figure out a way to deal with the morality, since this is as married as we get.”

The fingers of her left hand instinctively stretched out so that the beautiful canary diamond creation glinted in the twilight.  It was a breathtakingly stunning piece of jewelry, and with the meaning he’d attached in explaining the significance of the design… 

“I’m pretty sure I was a bitch and didn’t tell you how much I love what you chose.  I’ve never had anything that was both so beautiful and sentimental.  Thank you.”

“About time,” he muttered, leaning over for a quick kiss as the car came to a stop.  “With the way you’ve smiled at it all day and kept rubbing it with your thumb, I was starting to think you didn’t like it.”

So he hadn’t been as oblivious to her infatuation with the ring as Charlie thought.  She didn’t really care and pushed an easy elbow into his ribs before reaching for the car door while tossing out an unheated, “Smart ass.”

His hand landed heavily on her backside when he joined her outside the vehicle, and Jon dipped his head to whisper, “I’m glad you like it.”

Then he was joining the driver at the trunk to grab her bag while she was left grinning up at her house.  Her very bright house. 

“Jon?  There are lights on.”

“Yeah.”  He passed over her small carryon while hiking his duffel onto his shoulder and then squatted to pick up her small suitcase.  “I asked Luke to come let Tony in with the dog.  Saves us a trip to Jersey.”

Skeptically regarding him from the corner of her eye, she smirked as her foot hit the first step on the stoop.  Maybe it did save them a trip, but she’d be likelier to believe it was more about having Nana waiting for them.  He was starting to like her almost as much as Charlie did.

The instant she swung the door in and heard those little toenails clicking across the floor at a dead run, Charlie’s soul settled.  Children could be angry, hurtful and eventually grow up to leave you.  Men could be angry, hurtful and always had the option of leaving you – or making you stay.  A dog, though…  A dog was unconditional love in a fur coat. 

Dropping her bag and scooping up the wiggling bundle of energy, she held Nana close and relished the puppy kisses that washed her cheeks.  It was perfection, she thought – until Jon leaned in over her shoulder to greet the little “fur butt” and got his own share of smooches for the trouble. 

How weird was it that the moment he let her dog slobber all over his face that Charlie found Nirvana?  A colony of Zen Buddhists set up a temple inside of her and lit candles all around, not only settling her soul but giving it a deep sense of peace. 

Her dog loved him, and he willingly put up with the canine display of affection with nothing more than a nerdy laugh.  If Charlie ever had any thought of second-guessing her own love for him, they vanished in that moment.  He was worthy to own her heart, and she would never ask to have it back.

Then marry him.

The Zen Buddhists packed their candles and vacated like a professional band of gypsies, leaving behind a tight chest that pounded with the strength of Tico’s bass drum. 

He might always own her heart, but she couldn’t marry him.  No one was going to get that kind of power over her again.

“Well, y’all look like you’ve been to the happiest place on Earth.  All smiles and relaxation.”

“Lilah.”  Putting Nana on the floor as Jon did the same with the luggage, Charlie then moved to wrap both arms around the sweet woman who took everything in stride.  “I didn’t expect to see you, but I’m glad to have the chance to thank you in person.  I really appreciate you watching after Nana.  Did everything go okay?”

“Oh, yeah.”  One hand flitted carelessly through the air as Charlie hung her jacket on a hook, and then the threesome migrated from the foyer to the living room.  “The kids loved it, and I decided it wasn’t too bad either.  Much to my husband’s delight, Santa will be bringin’ a dog for Christmas – a potty-trained one.  But much to his chagrin, Santa’s also bringin’ a cat to maintain balance.”

“Thank you for having just a dog,” Jon dryly expressed his appreciation to Charlie.  “Where’s Tony, Lilah?”

“Luke’s showin’ him somethin’ in one of the bathrooms that everybody supposedly needs.” 

“I’m going to check that out when I take these up.”  He grabbed the suitcase and hoisted the other two bags on his shoulder, winking at Charlie when he headed up the stairs to leave the two women alone. 

“Can I offer you a glass of wine?”

“No thank ya,” Lilah politely declined.  “But don’t let that stop you from havin’ one.  I hear… things have gotten a little dramatic again.  Hopefully, for the last time.”

“I swear you’re better connected than the CIA,” she laughed through the return of sickening dread that become familiar in the last twenty-four hours.  Knowing that Jon would never turn down wine, Charlie tipped her head toward the kitchen.  “Keep me company while I open a bottle for the guys and tell me what you know.”

The soft soles of two pairs of sneakers moved silently over the hardwood as they moved from one room to the other.  In fact, the whole house was quiet except for a bit of shuffling overhead and Nana dancing next to her food dish.

“Where are the kids?”

“Oh, they’re with Des.  There was no way in hell we were gonna be able to leave Nana behind without them goin’ into the screamin’ meanies, so my brilliant husband decided to sublet them to his brother.  Speakin’ of brothers, that’s who told us about the latest – Luke.”

Charlie had figured as much, and as her friend claimed one of the stools at the island, a bottle of merlot was withdrawn from a cabinet.  It wasn’t Jon’s favorite, but he felt about wine like her boys did about pizza – even a bad one was good to have.  He would drink it.

“I figured,” she remarked, following up the bottle with four glasses. 

“Oh, hell.  Get me one, too.  I’ll just have a sip.”

Withdrawing one more piece of stemware with a chuckle, she slid it across the island toward Lilah and was retreating to take out the opener when she found her fingers being gripped.  “Heavens to mergatroid, woman!  Looks like somethin’s gone on that my connections aren’t talkin’ about.  This is gorgeous.”

“It is, isn’t it?”  She still couldn’t believe there was a ring sitting on her left hand that brought her happiness instead of resentment.  “He said it reminds him of me and the Hamptons – artsy, sand, sun, waves and lilacs.  Or something like that.”

“Oh… my… word.  I know he loves you, but damn.”  Lilah’s eyes lingered on the piece of jewelry as she allowed Charlie to open the drawer.  “It’s a treat knowin’ he can show an emotion besides anger without the help of a band.  Does this mean you’re engaged?”

“No, it means I got hit on while waiting to buy water.”

She accepted the first glass from the bottle with a snort.  “And there’s another emotion I never expected – jealousy.”

“I don’t know that I’d call it jealousy,” Charlie denied thoughtfully as the beautiful red spilled into a second glass.  “He just pointed out that scenes like that could be avoided if I wore the universal sign of commitment, and I pointed out that he’d never offered me one.  You know what a problem solver he is.”

Lilah lifted her glass with a grin.  “That I do.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had somethin’ to do with Owen’s untimely demise.”

Remaining purposely impassive, she continued to pour without looking up.  “That’s ridiculous.”

“I wouldn’t call it ridiculous.  Serendipitously coincidental, maybe, but not ridiculous.  The man wants what he wants and I’ve seen him be a total jackass to get it.”

“’Serendipitously coincidental’?”

Lilah merely lifted a shoulder at the wry remark.  “Just because I talk like a country bumpkin most times doesn’t mean I am one.  Tony likes the accent and colloquialisms, and they annoy Jon.  Win-win.”

“Lilah Bongiovi, you are something else,” Charlie chuckled and set aside the near-empty bottle as there came a loud knocking at the front door.

“Charlie!  Luke!”

Nana took off like a shot, yapping like crazy until she got to the living room.  There was one final bark and the clicking of toenails prancing in what was probably a circle. 

“In the kitchen, Dom!”

When her eldest brother clomped into the kitchen, he was bearing two pizza boxes that reeked to high heaven.  He slid them on the counter before sidling up to kiss her cheek.  “Welcome home.  Did you have a good time?”

“The best, but God almighty, how much garlic did you put on those things?”

“Caleb called to say they were coming home tonight and requested extra garlic.  There it is.  Hi.  You’re Tony’s wife, right?”

“I am,” Lilah agreed with an outstretched hand, which her brother picked up to kiss.  “And you’re Dominick, Charlie’s oldest brother.  It’s nice to meet you instead of just seein’ you across the room.”

“Ditto.”  He flashed a charming Del Vecchio smile before turning to Charlie and firing off, “When will the boys be here?  Have you told them about Owen yet?”

“Oh Lord.  Those poor boys.  I was so relieved for you that I didn’t even think.”

“It’s okay,” she assured Lilah with a self-deprecating laugh.  “I’ve thought enough for everybody, and no, Dom.  I haven’t told them.  That’s why they’re coming home.”

Before he could respond, the other three men in the house clambered down the stairs and into the kitchen.  Luke and Tony were talking animatedly about radiant heat flooring, but when Jon entered behind them, he lifted his eyebrows in a facial shrug.  He didn’t care, and it had Charlie laughing into her wineglass.

He clapped Dom on the shoulder and greeted him heartily, though.  He then murmured thanks as he snagged a wineglass and stood beside her, a hand resting low against her spine. 

“How do you think they’re gonna take it?” Lilah inquired, ignoring the noisy entrance while her husband leaned around her to grab one of the remaining glasses. 

“Who’s gonna take what and do I smell pizza?”

“The boys,” Dom supplied as Charlie went back to the cabinet and withdrew another glass for him.  “When they find out about Owen, and the pizza is for them, so no Luca.  You don’t smell it.”

Frowning when his hand got smacked, Luke went and claimed the stool beside Lilah at the end of the island.  “They should take it as a lesson not to get your ass thrown in jail, and if you do, don’t piss off mobsters.”

“That officially excluded you from the conversation, and what do you mean mobsters?” Charlie demanded.  Had they found out which inmate was responsible for stabbing Owen?  No one had called her with that information. 

“You know.”  He laid a finger alongside his nose.  “Mobsters.”

“I know what a mobster is, dumbass.  Tell me what that has to do with Owen.”

Eyes that were identical to her own flicked away to seek out their older brother, who shrugged, leaving Luke to say, “Vince didn’t tell you?  The guy that shanked Owen had Mafia ties – very loose ones, but still.”

“I haven’t talked to Vince,” she murmured with a crumpled brow, setting her wine away and turning to Jon.  He looked just as perplexed as she felt, but Charlie still asked, “Did you know?”

“Nuh-uh.  I haven’t talked to Vince, either.”

Owen and the Mafia.  That was quite possibly the last thing she would’ve imagined, but maybe they were making too much of it.  God knew he certainly wasn’t worth the trouble of a “hit” – no matter what asinine ideas Jon got in his head.  Owen was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time.